Imagine the Prime Minister of Israel releasing a statement urging Jews to consider whether they themselves might bear some responsibility for the Holocaust. Perhaps Hitler and Himmler had certain reasons for sending Jews to the gas chambers, and maybe it was the Jews’ own “wrong attitude” that, to some extent, gave rise to such horrors.
It’s unthinkable. A political figure who voiced such ideas would not remain in office—would not even remain in public life. The reason is simple: Israeli society has built an immunity to such sacrilege.
We, however, do not have that immunity.
I would not be surprised if we were officially told that cannibalism is acceptable—as long as the victims somehow “made it possible.” That, too, would be framed as a perfectly reasonable political idea. Or if we were told that the vision of a “real Armenia” is one that becomes a part of Azerbaijan or Turkey.
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In psychology, “victim blaming” refers to attempts to justify a crime by assigning responsibility to the victim. For example: a woman was raped—well, why was she wearing a short skirt and walking alone at night? Usually, such twisted logic is reserved for the criminal himself, or perhaps his defenders.
But in our case, those who should be the defenders of the victims—their relatives, their people—are the ones searching for “justifications.” It’s as if our own government has taken the side of the perpetrators.
Maybe, in 1990, the Baku pogromists also “had their reasons” for throwing Armenians—including women, children, and the elderly—from high-rise balconies. Why did they launch the Karabakh movement in Yerevan in the first place? That was “wrong,” wasn’t it?
Maybe Ramil Safarov, too, “had grounds” when he axed Gurgen Margaryan in his sleep. Perhaps he was simply overwhelmed by the pain of Artsakh’s liberation—liberation that, according to today’s authorities, was also “wrong”—and saw no other way out.
The problem isn’t just that such vile and sacrilegious thoughts are being spoken aloud. The deeper problem is that society is digesting them. Accepting them. Normalizing them.
That is the true symptom of a society in mortal decline.
And so, not just the authorities—but all of us—become “friends of criminals and executioners.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
